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Detroit Free Press Business Writer

General Holiefield, UAW vice president and director of the Chrysler department, says "they are in a hiring mode."

Wil Lewis, team leader at the Chrysler Warren Truck Plant, holds a signed petition opposing the new work schedule, which starts in March. / ANDRE J. JACKSON/Detroit Free Press

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Work schedules are about to change for about 4,000 Chrysler hourly workers at two plants in Warren in a trade-off between creating jobs and saving money.

Not everyone is happy.

In March, as the plants prepare to add a third crew, workers at the truck and stamping plants in Warren will adopt a new alternative work schedule that calls for employees to work four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days.

For some workers that means changes in child care arrangements and doing household chores mid-week that were once done on Saturday or Sunday.

Some UAW workers oppose the change because about two-thirds of the employees will work every Friday and Saturday.

"I understand why it's coming; my biggest issue is the fairness," said Wil Lewis, 40, of Detroit. "I don't think the schedule we are going to is as fair as (it) could possibly be."

General Holiefield, vice president of the UAW's Chrysler department, acknowledges that the new schedule will be difficult for some, but he calls it a "good problem to have."

This year, with the economy rebounding and demand for pickups rising, Chrysler plans to make more than 300,000 Ram 1500s in Warren compared with 227,000 in 2012, according to a Jan. 24 company memo.

Chrysler will get about 52 more days of production per year than under a traditional three-shift schedule. Production will occur over 120 hours per week on a six-day schedule rather than 80 hours before overtime under a traditional two-shift schedule.

There will be a four-hour window every day for routine plant maintenance and less overtime, both key advantages from management's view.

"We have to be creative, and ... that means we are going to an alternative work schedule so that we can ... get the products out," Holiefield said.

Workers complain that the new schedule has two of the three work crews working every Saturday. A 10-hour shift also goes against what many say is the hard-won historic union principle of an eight-hour workday for manufacturing workers.

"Everything those guys fought for is going down the tubes," said Tim Kahanak, a production worker at Warren Stamping. "There is a lot of discontent on the plant floor."

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Many workers who dislike the schedule are angry with Holiefield and they vented at a meeting with him last month. But the union approved Chrysler's first alternative work schedule during contract talks in 2003.

"So people have been misled into thinking that (I) did something totally weird by allowing the company to have an alternative work schedule when in fact it preceded my time at the helm," Holiefield said.

The contract language was modified in 2007, 2009 and 2011. In 2011, the contract was updated to give Holiefield the authority to approve any new schedule on a plant-by-plant basis.

For years, Chrysler had little need to adopt the new schedule because sales were falling, the company was eliminating jobs and overtime was not needed.

Now, with sales of cars and trucks rapidly rising, Chrysler has adopted alternative schedules at five plants in Belvidere, Ill.; Kokomo, Ind., Dundee, Detroit and Trenton.

Workers at nearly all of those locations complained but eventually adjusted, Holiefield said.

Chrysler has added 8,000 hourly workers in the U.S. since 2009 -- most at plants where the new schedule has been adopted.

"What I have said is: I am fighting hard for the work to stay right here in the U.S.," Holiefield said. "Let's keep this work here at home."

Chrysler is adding about 1,000 workers at Warren Truck as it adds a third crew.

"Something magical is happening within Chrysler right now -- they are in a hiring mode," Holiefield said. "If, in fact, consumers were not having a love affair with the products that Chrysler has today, we would have hit a brick wall, Chrysler would be laying people off and we would not be discussing an alternative work schedule."

The new schedule provides workers with three days off each week instead of two. However, about two-thirds of the employees will always work on Friday and Saturday.

"It means you are never going to get a full weekend," said Ken Mefford of Warren, who helps assemble the Ram pickup.

Lewis, who also works at Warren truck, said he collected more than 130 signatures on a petition requesting changes in the new schedule, but the UAW doesn't want to consider them.

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"My biggest problem is just with how good the first shift, the A shift, schedule is compared to B and C shift," he said.

Even with 14 years of seniority, Lewis figures he will not qualify for A shift, which will work Monday through Thursday.Instead, he is asking to work C shift, which will call for him to work from 5 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

Mark Dickow, president of UAW Local 140, said he isn't thrilled about the new schedule either, but most workers can choose the schedule that best fits their needs.

"I don't like that someone is going to have to work every Saturday night," Dickow said. "But here at the local level, we have no say in it. It is what it is."